[ Rosenburg, as the first shades of night arise… ]

The streets inside the capital were as lively as ever. Young adults approached the nearby bars with their friends and nobilities waltzed towards the most delicious cafés while preparing for their evening squabble.

Along these crowded paths ran a blonde boy. His speed was average for someone his size, but also way steadier than most would suggest. He's been running for quite a while now, one hour and thirty-six minutes to be exact, with the same speed and no pause.

It was thanks to the unique Sigil he could follow a fixed speed without losing breath. Scout Sigils were known for being one of the best starting Sigils for those who wish to follow a stamina-based class.

Around 5% of every Sigil user started out bearing a Scout Sigil. Around half of those users quit being heroes after grinding only five levels.

Even outside of the hero business, there was a high demand for certain classes, such as Scouts. Certain technological and economical scarcities raised the demand for messengers, who worked as the mailmen of Astria.

Unbeknownst to that figure who ran through those steady streets, he was being used as a private messenger. The item in his inventory, the tiny red gem containing a hydra's soul, was the mail he's been meant to deliver.

Further down a crest rose to the horizon. The head of a ferocious beast was displayed on that sign.

"Heroes' Guild."

The door to the guild revealed a strong gold light. Lanterns lit up the building's interiors, which were just as lively as any other day.

The boy rushed to the receptionist's desk. There were two ladies operating behind the desk, one of which immediately recognized the boy.

She nearly fainted upon seeing him. The boy's blonde hair was covered with dust, blood stains decorated his light leather armor and most of his clothes were oozing with sweat.

As he approached the desk with heavy panting, the woman was no short of any bad thoughts.

"You are that hero from Suzuki's group! Stevie, if I'm not mistaken. You took the job to defeat an instance dungeon to the north."

She was too scared to say out loud what bothered her heart. She had a small crush on Suzuki. Hearing the death of her love would have broken her heart.

When Stevie finally stopped gasping for air, he revealed the small gem from his inventory. A small white light circled within as if a firefly trying to break out.

The receptionist lady observed the gem up close and asked a question with wide eyes.

"Did you manage to clear the dungeon?"

"Sure did!" Stevie forced himself a smile. "One of us took any damage, but––"

"Did Mister Suzuki get hurt?" The woman asked with worry in her voice.

Stevie was silent for a moment, then shook his head with a straight face.

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"Thank goodness!" The woman sighed with relief, before taking away the gem.

She pulled out a strange machine from under the desk. It was a scale, attached to a strange gauge and other small components. The receptionist put the gem onto the scale and the machine made a strange noise.

"Foom!" The meter of the gauge rose by a bit and different numbers appeared on the neighboring components.

The receptionist pulled out a form and filled up each rubric with one of the many different numbers. The other receptionist took her small calculator and pressed down tens of buttons in just a few seconds.

Stevie was intrigued by the process. He reminisced of the old school days when he would fill out tests that looked much like these papers.

Now that he really thought of it, maybe he did not miss school days all that much.

"Done!" The receptionist said and put away the forms.

She took some paper that she wrapped around the gem, then wrote the name "Suzuki" atop with her black pencil.

"Alright," She looked at the calculations her partner made. "We will hand out the rewards personally, as the guild policy says. If your partners fail to claim their rewards one week after the mission has been completed, they will lose all eligibility and their share will be kept by the guild. Once again, the policy says so."

"Can I claim my rewards now?" Stevie shyly asked.

The woman took another glance at the calculation. She then reached under the desk once more and opened a small case full of different currencies.

Bronze, silver and gold. Ten from each can be turned in to gain the one above, which is worth exactly the same.

The rewards for this quest were fifteen golds each. It was a quest issued by the higher-ups, which meant that it was free of any taxes. Plus-minus the gem recovered from the mission and some other expenses, Stevie should get somewhere between fourteen to sixteen gold, depending on the value of the gem.

But in a strange turn of events, the receptionist placed twenty coins of gold, seven coins of silver, and five coins of bronze before him.

"What?! There must have been a mistake!" Stevie said with such innocence that it was almost laughable.

"You are in the same team as Black Tea, is that correct?" The receptionist who did the calculations asked.

Stevie nodded.

"Black Tea has been working with the guild for more than four months. During that time, she never once claimed the quest rewards. We've sent messengers to her regarding this, but they all returned with no results."

"What does that mean?" Stevie cocked his head to one side.

"She invited our messenger to a tea party and when they suggested she claims her rewards, they all met the same response. Silence, with additional slurps of tea."

Stevie was surprised to learn about this. Thinking of, he did not see Black Tea do anything when they fought through the dungeon. It felt almost as if she was there to just leech their experience points.

After kindly accepting the rewards, Stevie headed straight to the exit. It was a long day and he needed to rest. Thankfully, the king was still willing to give them residence still even after the horrible events of the forest.

On his way out, he saw two young adventurers roughly his age. One was a mage while the other was a warrior and they were observing the large "News" board.

Various papers hung from the board, most of them being articles from famous newspapers, which entailed the most recent events all heroes should be aware of.

"Did the top heroes change again?" The mage asked.

"Yeah." The warrior replied with a disappointed sigh.

"Someone died?"

"Nope. Sergeant Punch's spot was overtaken by… her."

Stevie saw that whoever that "her" was, the thought sent chills down the mage's spine.

"Top heroes?" He thought to himself.

Stevie knew the heroes' guild had a ranking system, but only those above Level 15 could climb the leaderboard. Still being a newbie adventurer, he could only dream of ever making it into the big leagues.

Still, the top heroes? Who could they be?

The starting Sigils were already powerful and unlocked above-average potential for even the puniest of humans. Just how powerful were the Sigils of the greatest heroes?

Stevie needed to know. He was itching to be amazed.

"Hi there!" He approached the two young adventurers. "I couldn't help but hear you two were talking about the top heroes. I'm still new to the whole hero spiel, so could you enlighten me about them?"

The two youngsters were surprised by the kind man's approach. They were left speechless by Stevie, who shone the friendliest smile in all of Astria.

"S-Sure." The mage lowered his guard. "We could tell you about the Grandmasters."